Range Resources Takes a A$2 Million Stake in Tangiers Petroleum
2 September 2011 – Proactive Investors UK
Range Resources (LON: RRL, ASX: RRS) is broadening its portfolio with a A$2 million investment in Australian explorer Tangiers Petroleum.
It is acquiring 5 million shares at 40 cents each, which gives it a 5.7 per cent stake in the group, which has potentially world class oil and gas projects in Morocco and Australia.
The most exciting is the highly prospective offshore Tarfaya block, in which Tangiers holds a 75 per cent stake.
Independent consultants Netherland, Sewell & Associates looked at four prospects on this block and came up with a best estimate prospective resource of 870 million barrels and a high estimate of almost 5 billion barrels.
The company has since mapped numerous other prospects in Tarfaya that will significantly add to the existing prospective resource estimates. A 3D seismic campaign is planned and two wells will be drilled next year.
In Australia Tangiers holds a 90 per cent interest in the Nova and Super Nova gas prospects located off the coast of Northern Australia.
These structures are extremely large with a physical closure of approximately 240 square kilometres each.
An initial resource estimate suggests total undiscovered, un-risked gas-in-place of 70 trillion cubic feet.
The prospects are located near a liquefied natural gas terminal in Darwin in what is regarded as a growing global gas and LNG hub.
Tangiers expects to acquire further seismic data and drill two wells in Australia in next year.
The group is also planning a float here in the UK on AIM and has appointed RFC Corporate Finance as its nominated advisor.
For Range, which is also involved with two highly prospective projects, one in Puntland, Somalia, the other in former Soviet state of Georgia, the Tangiers stake is a “nice little add-on”, according to director Peter Landau.
"Tangiers has an outstanding portfolio of extremely high impact assets,” Landau added.
“Any farm out and/or drilling success will lead to a very material uplift in value.”
Currently Range is very much on the “exponential growth opportunities” offered by its two main exploration targets.
Africa Oil Corp (CVE: AOI), the operator of the Puntland project, will drill the first oil well in the region for 20 years when work gets underway in the autumn.
Range holds 20 per cent in the two licences that encompass the Dharoor and Nugaal valleys, where the drilling is taking place.
AIM and ASX listed Red Emperor (LON: RMP, ASX: RMP) has an identical stake, while AO has 45 per cent.
The two valleys cover nearly 36,000 square kilometres and have been assessed to potentially contain a combined 19 billion barrels of oil in place.
Range and Red Emperor are also joint venture partners in the Republic of Georgia, where they have interests in onshore blocks VIa and VIb.
Independent consultants, via a 2D seismic programme, have identified 68 potential structures containing an estimated 2.1 billion barrels of oil in place over this block.
Last month, an update from Georgia reported that drilling of an initial pilot hole had reached planned depth of 700 metres at the firms’ Mukhiani well at their Vani 3 prospect in the country.
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